Jeremiah 22:21 “I spake unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not my voice.”

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word “inertia” is defined as “a property of matter by which it remains at rest or in uniform motion in the same straight line unless acted upon by some external force”.

Additionally, inertia is “the inherent property of a body that makes it oppose any force that would cause a change in its motion.”

Basically put, the law of inertia is that things that are going on will keep going on as they are and resist any change to the contrary unless something significant enough happens to change it.

And this describes humanity, not just objects in physics. Because inertia is also found in human behaviour. We all tend to behave a certain way and keep behaving that way, and resist change to doing so.

And there is one particularly defining and damaging inertia in humanity, which is the inertia of sin and disobedience to God’s word.

Most people are in this inertia, like here in Jeremiah, who was a prophet sent to a people that historically disobeyed God’s word and kept disobeying God’s word, and would not and could not be changed from that inertia, even while facing impending destruction.

And all through the Bible, and in my own life, and in the lives of others, I’ve seen the inertia that exists in all of us towards sin against God’s word.

Where does this inertia start? As children. Nobody has to teach us to be selfish, lie, cheat, steal… because we are all born with a sinful nature already in motion with inertia against God. As the Bible says, the “motions of sins” work in our members.

And this is one reason why we have parents as kids. Because parents are required to apply a greater force… in the form of education, discipline, rebuke and correction when needed… to overcome the inertia of bad behaviour.

… But truly, the only way the inertia of sin is ever overcome is through being saved and born again.

If you do not trust in the power of God through Jesus Christ to save you from your sins, there is no other force that can prevent you from going where the inertia of sin takes you… to destruction and hell.

And one more thing to consider about inertia, is that the greater the mass of the object in motion… the greater the force required to overcome its inertia.

… As you go along in a life disobeying God’s word, it’s going to require greater and greater force to overcome that inertia as the “mass” of a life of years of sin accrues.

The Bible says to “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth”… because if you don’t, you’re more and more likely to stay that way for the rest of your life, despite what’s coming, and despite whoever God sends to warn you, like in Jeremiah.

Jerusalem was facing imminent Babylonian invasion, but God had provided a way for them to be saved… but their inertia of disobeying God’s word was so great that they did not believe and obey God’s word that could have saved them.

… So please don’t let your life tell the same old story! Salvation through Christ is the power greater than all our sins… but you must be saved before the inertia of sin reaches journey’s end!

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